The four rules will keep you alive. I drilled the four rules into my sons when they were young and they had to recite all four of them before they could touch a gun. It paid off.

One year the hunting trip was over, unload the truck, clear the weapons bring them in. All rifles should be cleared before bringing them inside again. One of them got missed somehow. (too much confidence in my sons?). My sons 700 ADLSY 308 Win. got laid on the table in the gunroom awaiting cleaning. Busy at work and many other guns to clean first let is sit there for two weeks, the last one to be cleaned. I picked it up and racked the bolt...out popped a live cartridge, safety was off. It makes me sick to think how many friends and family sat on the chair in front of the muzzle of that rifle for two weeks.

Constant drilling of the four rules when they were young saved the tragedy from occurring. It's embarrassing for me to write this but safety warnings need to be passed on. Trigger etiquette is a must with firearms. Kudos to Ayoob for helping me to gunproof my children with his book.

OK, this was more amusing than scary, but it really happened. I was in a pawn shop a couple months ago, and was looking in a gun case while a young salesman was explaining something to a young lady who was looking at a semiauto. He came off as something of an expert on the semiauto pistol. When the shop guy goes to get her something out of the case, I asked if he could pull out a Colt Peacemaker that was in there too. He picked it up, but he couldn't figure out how to open the cylinder to check if it was empty. I was trying to point out the cylinder latch without embarrasing him, and telling him something like "on a Colt you have to pull the latch backwards", and then the guy goes and cocks the hammer while I'm standing there like "no, no, that's not what you want to do"!
Seems like some younger guys just don't understand the simplicity of a revolver?

this is basically what it boils down to. and the drilling them into your kids is a lifesaver. the ones that donot learn the rules are the ones that add to stats that are worrsome...just one being:

younger children tend to point the weapon at themselves for whatever reason if they don't understand firearms(sometimes due to small hands andor less strength). most of the rest inevitably point the firearm at another person instead of an object(if they haven't been taught the rules).

I don't post this with any joy in my heart. In fact, I would never tell anybody about what a fool I am if I didn't think somebody could learn something from it.

The beauty of the four rules is the built-in redundancy. In general if you have a mental lapse on one of them, the other 3 can still save your bacon as long as you follow them. I have never had a round pop out of a weapon somebody handed me, but I _nearly_ handed one to somebody with a round in it. I "emptied" Mrs. Halfront's glock and was about to hand it to her when she asked me if it was clear. I assured her that it was and racked the slide. Sure enough a round went rolling across the floor and we both just kind of sat there in silence for a moment. I learned a lot in those two seconds.

I'm forever grateful that I was following the rules. I was treating it as loaded even though it "wasn't", I kept it pointed in a safe direction the entire time and I kept my finger off the loud button. The rules, the rules the rules. The rules exist specifically because a person could do something foolish, and I did. The rules didn't keep me from doing something foolish, they just kept me from paying an unbearable penalty when it happened.

When I was about 14yo my sister's friend's parents came over to the house. We were all friendly and they would hang out. Her father was a Georgia State Patrol officer. On this particular day he had bought a new gun and brought it inside to show me and my dad. He dropped the mag and handed it to me. I believe it was a stainless Colt government model. I racked the slide and a big ole 45 round popped out........

Not someone else's gun, but during a camping trip a buddy asked to see my pistol, I dropped the magazine, cleared the chamber, and handed it to him. At the time I was in the middle of cleaning and sharpening my knife. I took my eyes off him for a second and he picks up the magazine, pops it in the gun, and racks the slide. I could hear the round being chambered and roared at the top of my lungs WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING, and told him to lay it down. His girlfriend got mad at me because I yelled at him and couldn't understand the severity of the situation. Never thought much of her anyway so what do I care. To say the least hes not allowed to touch my guns anymore.

Once in college a friend's friend was showing off a Springfield. He drew it from a zipper bag and was jokingly, casually pointing it at me and other onlookers. It was unloaded and he stated that but I was terrified and thought much less of the guy ever since.

Whenever I show a gun to someone, I keep it pointed well away from people. Action open, no magazine, and I touch the chamber. Then when I hand it to someone I explain why I did that and ask them to do the same as a double-check and to make them comfortable.

Maybe that one time educated me on how to make others around me more comfortable handling my and their guns.

Went to the local Cal-ranch(Wal-mart for Farmers and hopeless Rednecks like me, fencing,feed,etc.). I asked to see a couple of pistols. The guy quickly and carelessly opened the actions, then closed them without me seeing, then handed them to me. I immediately opened the actions when I got them and looked much more carefully.
I didn't ask to see the other two I wanted to handle.
I couldn't keep the thought out of my mind that if this young man continued to handle guns that way an accidental discharge at some point in his life was almost guaranteed.

__________________
Gaily bedight, A gallant knight In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of El Dorado

As long as it's not pointed at me or someone else.
Some years ago at a previous employer a couple detectives from the local PD stopped by.One opened his coat and his sidearm fell out. The boss-and they-were stunned at how fast I scooped it up and cleared it.

I had an AD from an "unloaded" gun go into my left knee. This was after asking the fool if it was unloaded. Keep the muzzles safe and remember the fundamentals. I'm thankful to be walking 18 months later. Check twice. Walk forever

When I was about 10 years old someone in the apartment above us had been shot, so my mom (extremely uneducated about firearms) decided to bring out her old 38 special revolver. At the time, I had never really been around guns, so I have no idea what the model was, but I pretty quickly understood that I did not want to treat a gun like she did that night. She brought it out of her drawer completely unaware of the fact that it had been sitting there loaded for years. She didn't know how to unload it and certainly didn't know the weapons safety rules.

After a few minutes of messing around with it, she tried to open the cylinder while her finger was on the trigger and discharged the weapon. The bullet came pretty close to me, but it didn't hit me. It ricocheted off of the linoleum tile and into the bathroom where it embedded itself into the side of the ceramic tub. She sold the weapon after that instead of trying to learn what she was doing, but I definitely learned a healthy respect for firearms that day. She's just lucky that the bullet hit the ceramic and didn't go into the next apartment.

For 55 years I've been an active shooter and regret to say that I've witnessed
very many examples of careless gun handling--some of which resulted in negligent discharges. I'm guilty of one which blew a hole in my new truck's door.

If, in a recreational setting in the field, on the range, or at home, and we're looking at each other's guns, my rule is to have the actions open if it ain't cased or holstered. I've observed that some folks don't like to be directed in this manner and resist this etiquette. These guys I avoid.

Couple months ago my buddy bought a truck, and I went over to his house to check it out. He lives in the middle of the woods in a pretty secluded area;however, there is a guy who lives about a mile up the road from him. We had just stepped out of the garage, and we started hearing gun shots. Then we heard a bullet fly right between us. We were probably 5 feet apart. We ran into the garage, and waited 5 minutes before stepping out again. All 5 of those minutes there was continuous shots being fired with brief intervals of which if I had to guess was the guy reloading. We then went to step out again. Guess what happened? Two more go flying past us. To this day every time I hear a gunshot out there I cringe at the very thought of that day, and how lucky I was that neither of us were struck by those bullets.

Alabama Shooter: Before handing it to me he is showing me the various things he likes about it and then says; "look at your sons chest".

I look and there is a red dot on there. He moves it around a little and tells me it is well zeroed. I remain calm but move in front of my son slowly.

He then hands it to me, I roll it open and all the chambers are all full.

I actually broke out into a cold sweat.

Oh man, I'm breaking out in a cold sweat just reading your post. You must have exercised massive restraint by not knocking him out cold right then and there (once you had his gun in your possession of course). I'm not inclined to violence at all, but pointing a loaded firearm at a loved one (especially a child) is one of the few things that would light my fuse. At the very least I'd empty the chambers right then and there and commence some very angry loudspoken lecturing.

After his father passed, my father in law brought back his dad's firearms from Arizona (we live in VA). I was over at his house when he unpacked them. I was admiring his dad's marlin 30 30 from across the room and he brought it over to me and handed it to me. I worked the lever to check the chamber and, sure enough, out popped a round. I worked the action again - another round... basically a whole magazine full.

I agree with you guys, I always clear a gun when handed to me, even if I was just told it was not loaded. Perfect example of this....I was hanging out with a couple of friends the other day, and the one asked to see my .380. Before anyone says anything, he's my best friend and he knows I always have this gun on me (only a few very close friends know that). Anyways he really likes the gun (S&W BG380) and has been considering getting one for himself to carry (he has a gen3 Glock 19 but wants something smaller to carry), so he wanted to check it out. I pulled the gun out, popped out the mag, turned off the safety and racked the slide to clear the round in the chamber, then handed it to him. Even though he had JUST seen me do it, he racked it again just to be sure. He has his CCW permit and also graduated from the police academy and has been around guns longer than I have, so he knows gun safety and how to handle a pistol.

When I was about 12 or 13, I went to spend the night with my grandparents. They had neighbors who had a kid my age, we were hanging out, and he invited me over to his house for a little while. He was showing me around his room when he stops, reaches under his mattress, and pulls out a single barrel break action 12 gauge shotgun. I knew very little about guns at the time but the action was closed but I remember he told me one of two things (not sure which)
1) first he said it wasn't loaded and then later said he does or sometimes does keep it loaded in case of intruders
2) he said it was loaded but had the safety on.

He asked me if I wanted to hold it and I told him I should get going back to my grandparents' house where I was sure to let them know. I was 6 in 2001 when they had all those PSA's about the young kid pulling out the handgun and shooting his friend when he thought it wasn't loaded ( a true story from somewhere around my hometown ). Even as gun owners, they were obviously infuriated and called the parents who apologized and said they were taking the gun away from him. As far as I know, in Florida, a minor can own a gun and keep it in their room under the condition that it is locked and unloaded.

These were the same neighbors who asked if they could gut and skin a deer in the backyard of the townhouses, which at that point was practically the same backyard my grandparents were living in. I don't know if that's normal among hunters but it rang very weird for them as animal lovers.

__________________
"It is long been a principle of ours that one is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully." -- Jeff Cooper

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